Doctor prescribes 3 steps for defeating 'the Beast,' coronavirus

By W. Scott Magill, M.D.

Americans do not give up; they stand up.

America's founders announced to the world a new era for humanity. An era where all men are created equal and whose rights are derived from their Creator, not from government. Americans saved the world from Nazi Germany engulfing Europe, and from Imperial Japan. Americans have always been defined by the transpicuous values of individualism, a strong work ethic, healthy competitiveness and a belief in acta non verba – action, not words. For Americans, nothing is impossible. Those defining character traits still course through the heart and soul of all real Americans today.

This indomitable spirit can bring America out through the far side of the present global crisis more robust than ever. The question is: Will we be more robust or less than when we entered this season of testing? That depends on taking three essential actions: 1) fire the silver bullet, 2) roar to the world that America is open for business, and 3) government: help pave the way, but stay out of the way!

1. Fire the silver bullet: Hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin

Across the country, health care workers have personalized the fight against the Wuhan virus by renaming it "the Beast." By ascribing personality qualities to this invisible enemy, the monster becomes personally defeatable. And conquerable it is, merely by firing the available "silver bullet" into the heart of the Beast.

As every veteran knows, when we go into battle, we take only the weapons we have, not the ones we wish we had. Fortunately, in the battle against the Beast, there is growing evidence we have the weapon we wish we had – the silver bullet in the form of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin.

President Trump and members of his team have mentioned this silver bullet as a potential "game-changer" more than once during Coronavirus Task Force press briefings. The Washington Examiner reported Sunday that FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn used that very phrase behind closed doors with fellow members of the task force, after which economic adviser Peter Navarro distributed folders with information about the drugs. Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci is said to have balked, arguing more testing is needed.

But the president himself said Sunday to the media that the administration had purchased "a tremendous amount" of hydroxychloroquine, which will be distributed to the states after the FDA issued an emergency approval for its use among coronavirus patients.

"We have it stockpiled – about 29 million doses. We have a lot of it. We hope it works," he said.

In an ideal world, perhaps the one Dr. Fauci envisions, we would have controlled double-blind studies on hydroxychloroquine. Of course, we are now a world in crisis, a situation that demands we rely on the growing evidence we have of its efficacy and that requires action to counter the left and their complicit "Tokyo Rose" media, who have have waged a war of words to preclude using the silver bullet we have, claiming it is not the weapon we wished for – a deadly deception for political gain.

Failure to use the silver bullet is irresponsible and, under today's circumstances, a form of malpractice – a term I as a physician do not use lightly. Hydroxychloroquine has shown tremendous success in saving lives, with over 70 years of safe use in the real world. This experience is coupled with an abundance of anecdotal reports across the globe supporting several small studies demonstrating astonishing efficacy in fighting the Beast. Let us not forget the patient also has a God-given right reaffirmed by President Trump, the "Right-to-try!"

2. Roar to the world: America is open for business

During the month of March 2020, 701,000 Americans saw their jobs cut due to both the physical and cultural viruses that are ravaging our land. There is a sickness in our nation far worse than the Wuhan coronavirus whose symptoms are fear and anxiety, leading to a weekly jobless claims rate of 3,307,000 the week ending March 21, 2020, and 6,648,00 for the week ending March 28, 2020.

The numbers are only openers if America remains closed, with the people hunkered down in their homes until we capitulate to the domestic enemies and lose all the many blessings of liberty that is our heritage – our Constitution, our individual liberty, our culture, our nation itself and the rule of law, all thrown aside for the rule of emotionalism.

Veterans in Defense of Liberty® commends and supports President Trump's prompt and ahead-of-the-curve response to the physical virus. We respectfully caution him over ignoring the cultural viral infection of the body politic on the left, for they know that prolonged crouching at home will rapidly emotionally weaken American values such as optimism, self-reliance, personal choice and responsibility. We caution that at some point in time, a lockdown of America will see the fulfillment of Gov. Cuomo's prediction that, "The country will never be the same." Rather than furthering the slide toward the abyss of socialism, we must guide our republic back to constitutional fidelity.

Americans and American businesses are resilient and flexible, as we have witnessed over the past few weeks. Unless we wait too long, they can and will bring America roaring back. What a ride that will be!

In any health care system, Rule No. 1 is: Regrettably, people die. Rule No. 2 is that neither physicians nor government can change Rule No. 1. Both can affect outcomes – physicians positively, government adversely. The airwaves have been filled with reports on the virus' death rate, but we must not ignore the hard reality of an economic death rate. This economic death rate – those who literally die due to economic hardship by, for example, skipping medical tests for "minor" pains that may turn out to be cancerous – compared to the COVID-19 death rate has been estimated at 4:1. The cure for containing the virus may turn out to be much worse than the disease.

The economy is We the People! As the economy tanks and unemployment rises to never-before-seen levels in America, even the strongest among us will suffer psychological trauma, causing the dissolution of lifelong relationships, depression, anxiety and the loss of so many of those values that made America great. Anxiety and depression kill by themselves, and the hopelessness that ensues frequently leads, even in the strongest among us, to suicide.

3. Government: Help pave the way, but stay out of the way

Prolonged restrictions on our civil liberties will speed the slide toward socialism – thus making us the generation to observe the sunset of America; the generation that rescinds our Founding Fathers' announcement to the world of a new era; the generation that ushers back in the Dark Ages for the future of humanity.

This is not how Americans fight an enemy! It is how totalitarian governments fight. Americans do not give up; they stand up. We, America's veterans, have served and fought since 1775 that freedom and liberty might extend to the very end of time. We fought for your families and ours, and generations yet unborn. We fought so the sacrifice of our brothers and sisters who did not come home shall not have been made in vain. We always fought with the support of the American people, and we cannot fight this battle without your help.

Americans, it is time to stand up and be known as the generation that saved America. After all, we are Americans!

To that end, Veterans in Defense of Liberty® calls upon on all true Americans to stand up and:

Call your U.S. senators and representatives;
Call the president's office at 202-456-1111;
Write op-eds for your local paper;
Get on your local and national talk radio shows.

Tell them that We the People demand they assure all patients who need the silver bullet receive it – and the earlier in their illness, the better!

Let President Trump know you are praying for him and you support his efforts to deploy the "silver bullet" against the virus.

Tell them that We the People demand that once the silver bullet is in use nationally, roar to the world that America is open for business!

In op-eds and radio, educate and inform. Let's rise up in defense of liberty.

William Scott Magill, M.D., is the executive director of Veterans in Defense of Liberty (ViDoL). He served with the United States Marine Corp. 1965-1971, with the United States Army Medical Corps 1981-1988, and with the Denver Police Dept. 1970-1976. He obtained his bachelors of Business Administration from the University of Denver, Masters of Health Care Administration Trinity University in San Antonio, and medical degree from The University of Health Sciences in Kansas City. Dr. Magill matriculated his residency in Ob/Gyn at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, and served as the Chief of Ob/Gyn at Irwin Army Hospital Ft. Riley Kansas. He was until recently a practicing obstetrician & Gynecologist in Springfield, Missouri, for 21 years.